- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
Helen Cope Underhill, former UC Cooperative Extension home advisor, passed away Jan. 2, 2024, at age 99.
After attending Cooperative Extension home demonstration club meetings with her mother when she was a young girl in Alabama, Underhill decided she wanted to become a home demonstration agent.
At UCLA, Underhill earned a bachelor's degree in home economics, then returned to Alabama to teach WWII veterans in high school continuation classes while waiting for an opening in the University of California Agricultural Extension Service.
In 1946, she accepted a UCCE home advisor position, supervising the 4-H program in San Joaquin County. There she met John P. ‘Jack' Underhill, a young UCCE farm advisor, who was working in the same office. Two years later they married. Due to UC policy at the time that didn't allow married couples to work in the same office, Helen Cope Underhill was released from her job after their wedding. She remained an active supporter of UCCE in San Joaquin County as a 4-H leader and volunteer.
Mick Canevari, UCCE farm advisor emeritus and former UCCE director in San Joaquin County, was hired in 1971 as a field and lab assistant in San Joaquin County before becoming the 4-H advisor in 1973.
“When Jack hired me, Helen had long been retired, but I do remember when I accepted the 4-H position, Helen wrote a note of encouragement offering to help with the home economics part of the county fair,” Canevari said. “She had a passion for extension and was a strong proponent of our mission. She was a special lady to all of us. I can best describe her as the first lady of San Joaquin County Extension when Jack was county director.”
Helen Underhill is survived by her children Julie Elam (Jon), Ken Underhill, Liz Underhill Jue (Jack); grandchildren Rob (Megan Ponder) and Kristin Elam, Jace Underhill Proctor (Laura MacArthur), Robert (Kelly) and Leah and Jordan Jue; and five great grandchildren. Jack Underhill passed away in 2009.
Read more about Helen Cope Underhill at https://www.recordnet.com/obituaries/pyrk0702415.